Overworking
by SmileyDz
Summary: When Sasuke notices the extent to which Naruto is pushing himself, he starts to realise that he has some kind of effect on Naruto, and it may not be positive. This is my first story so please R&R :
1. Chapter 1

Sasuke liked it like this. When the cold numbed his fingers and buzzed the end of his nose, and the soft pitter-patter of snow on his hair calmed him to the point where he could think straight. _Maybe I was a little harsh on the idiot,_ he thought, kicking a pile of snow out of the way, _I mean, I don't care about his feelings that's for sure… if he gets hurt its his problem, not mine._ He concluded, smiling softly and picking up his pace, _then again, it may affect his performance as a team member._ Sasuke shrugged his shoulders. He looked up at the night sky, a rough blanket of thick cloud, lit by the reflection from the headlamps in the village below, "Must be getting late," he thought aloud.

After a few more minutes walking, Sasuke decided to take a shortcut through one of the training grounds, the same one they had been training in earlier that day. What Sasuke saw was almost surreal, and stopped him dead in his tracks, "Umm, Naruto?" Naruto was so surprised he missed his roundhouse kick on the training post, spinning round and landing on his ass.

"Umm, Sasuke?" Naruto replied, standing up slowly "What the heck are you doing here?" he asked, pulling his pants up stupidly.

"I was about to ask you the same question, idiot." Sasuke retorted, "I'm just going for a walk, it's a little late to be training isn't it?" Naruto looked up at the sky thoughtfully.

"Wow it is late; I must have gotten carried away!" He laughed, scratching the back of his head, "You got the time?"

"Umm, like, 9 I think." He said, turning away and starting to walk away.

"Hey Sasuke, you wanna go catch something to eat or something?" Naruto said nervously. Sasuke responded by sticking his middle finger up behind him. "W-whatever, I don't wanna eat with you anyway, asshole!" he yelled, turning around and storming off.

_Idiot, why does he always have to be so dramatic about everything?_ Sasuke thought to himself, taking the long way home. Sasuke eventually found himself at the door to his house in the Uchiha compound. He slotted his key into the keyhole, turned it, and walked inside, sighing. Sasuke had been thinking about Naruto more and more recently. He had toyed with the idea that he had some kind of attraction to the boy, but quickly dismissed it. His recent abrasiveness towards him was his attempt to confirm this to himself, and it seemed to have worked.

"Jeez…" he flopped down on his bed, kicking off his shorts and pulling off his shirt, resting one hand behind his head and one on his torso.

The next day, the team had no missions, and so Sasuke woke up at around ten. He stepped into the shower for a few minutes, got changed and stepped out the door, heading into the village for breakfast. He walked through the slightly compressed snow, which crunched as he went, and took the same shortcut through the training ground. Sasuke almost didn't stop when he saw Naruto sat against the tree, covered in snow with only his head showing, and even that was capped with snow.

"Umm, Naruto?" Sasuke said, a little shakily. He walked over to him lazily, kicking him "Naruto, wake up you're going to get hyperthermia or something," He kicked him a little harder, and Naruto stirred, "Naruto get up you idiot," he dragged the other onto his feet by his collar, leaning him up against tree.

"Hey Sasuke, what are you doing here?" He said lazily, and worryingly he wasn't shaking.

"You fell asleep outside in the snow you idiot," he rolled his eyes, wiping the snow off the other, "You were about to go into hyperthermia, you might not have woken up."

"Oh… okay, sorry," Naruto replied with monotone, slipping and nearly falling back down on his ass.

"Why were you still out here anyway?" Sasuke asked, guiding the boy into a nearby bar and sitting him down in a seat in the corner.

"I… never mind, I just lost track of time," Naruto replied, clearly lying, but Sasuke left it for the time being.

"Okay, just don't be such an idiot in the future," he said, standing up and leaving, not even looking at the other.

"H-hey Sasuke, thanks for…" Sasuke threw his middle finger up at the other.

"I helped you because I didn't want to have to deal with you if you got hyperthermia," he said, walking off.

**Okay, first chapter is done **** the next one will be told from Naruto's perspective, please R&R**


	2. Chapter 2

**Two days prior…**

"Naruto, what the hell is wrong with you?" Sasuke screamed at Naruto, shoving him backwards.

"I'm sorry man! I'm tired okay!" Naruto yelled back, taking a step back.

"It was a simple mission, all you had to do was catch that rouge ninja before he escaped, now he's escaped thanks to you," Sasuke toned his voice down a bit, but it was just as nasty.

"You're so useless Naruto," Sakura chimed in, "Why can't you be more like Sasuke?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, threw his hands into the air and stormed off.

**Present day**

Naruto woke up to a bright and sunny day "Hello mister sun!" he beamed, opening the curtains in his apartment. A little squirrel was waiting at his window, as it did every morning, and Naruto gave it a peanut, "There ya go, now be careful out there," the squirrel ran off with the peanut in its mouth.

He sat down with a pot of cup ramen and went through the day in his head, _so I got the morning to myself, and then a mission in the afternoon, shouldn't be too bad._ He smiled, finishing his ramen off and stepping outside into the sun. He walked his way over to the training grounds and started doing press-ups.

About 5 minutes later, Sasuke showed up. "Naruto, what the hell are you doing here?" Sasuke groaned annoyed, "If you overwork you'll be useless on missions."

"Ha! You can't overwork Naruto Uzamaki!" Naruto retorted, springing to his feet.

"Suit yourself moron, don't come crying to me when you collapse from exhaustion." He rolled his eyes, walking off with his hands in his pockets.

After training all morning, Naruto made his way to the bridge where they started their missions. Sasuke and Sakura were already waiting for him, "Oh god, I was hoping he wasn't going to show up!" Sakura whispered to Sasuke, who just rolled his eyes.

"Hey guys, how are you?" Naruto beamed, holding his hands behind his head.

"Shut up Naruto, just concentrate on the mission and try not to fuck up this time," Sasuke retorted, staring a dagger into Naruto.

"Whatever, you're just scared I'll outshine you!" Naruto laughed nervously, becoming less and less sure of himself by the day due to the other's remarks. Naruto's way of dealing with it was to push himself harder, which wasn't doing his body any good.

The start of the mission went smoothly enough. They were simply to escort a diplomat to a nearby village about twenty miles away. They got him to the village safely enough, but on the way back they were attacked by thugs.

The fight started well enough, with Sasuke and Sakura blocking blows while Naruto pounded on the enemy with his shadow clones. After half an hour of slugging it out, the battle seemed won.

"Well done everyone!" Naruto chirped, walking over to high five the others. It was then that he collapsed.


	3. Chapter 3

"Well you're the doctor, so tell me when he's going to be able to fight again?" Sasuke said calmly, getting increasingly frustrated with the nurse.

"I'm a nurse, actually, and I'm sorry but I don't know," she sighed "He's overworked himself way too much; he'll need at least a week of solid rest"

"Oh for god's sake," Sasuke pushed past the nurse and stormed towards the ward holding Naruto. "Naruto! What the heck is wrong with you? I told you not to over exert your-" Sasuke yelled at Naruto, before stopping when he saw the state of the other.

Naruto was lying pretty still, breathing shallowly, and his face was very pale. "N-Naruto?" Sasuke asked shakily.

"S-suke… I'm sorry," Naruto breathed, looking at the other through half closed eyes, "I need to get… stronger," he just managed, closing his eyes again.

"Just rest you moron," Sasuke retorted, his tone not quite as self-assured as usual.

"I need to go train, or I'll keep falling behind you and Sakura" Naruto strained, causing Sasuke to roll his eyes.

"Ever persistent aren't you?" Sasuke said, smiling softly at the other, before immediately taking the smile off his face.

"Suuuke!" Sakura could be heard chiming into the conversation, "Sasuke I was gonna ask you – oh, hey Naruto," Naruto smiled weakly "Yeh I was gonna ask you if you wanted to come for ramen or something later," Naruto felt his heart pang.

_Hey Sasuke, you wanna go catch something to eat or something?" Naruto said nervously. Sasuke responded by sticking his middle finger up behind him. "W-whatever, I don't wanna eat with you anyway, asshole!" he yelled, turning around and storming off._

"Yeh okay Sakura, I'm hungry anyway," Sasuke replied, forcing Naruto to pull a clearly cracked smile.

"S-see you later guys?" Naruto said.

"Yeh kay" the both said in unison, walking out and leaving Naruto alone in the room.

_There's no way an Uchiha can be homosexual, it's just unacceptable. I need to do this with Sakura, I need to prove to myself that I'm straight. _Sasuke felt like a jerk for what he'd just done to Naruto. He saw through Naruto's fake smile, having effectively told him to piss off on the same request. But he had to do it, he had to maintain his family's honour, and if Naruto got hurt for that then that was his problem.

Naruto, meanwhile, was trying to hold back his tears. He was angry he had let the others down, and was trying not to be angry that Sasuke was going for ramen with Sakura. _Stop being so selfish Naruto! They'd make a lovely couple you know that._ Naruto rubbed his eyes as he felt something land in his lap, "Oh! Hello!" Naruto grinned, as the squirrel he had been taming looked up at him confused, "How the heck you find me here?" he asked the little creature, stroking the top of its head, "Oh I'm sorry, I don't have any nuts for you," he said sadly.

The squirrel seemed to shrug its shoulders, before running out the window through which it came. Naruto laughed softly, feeling a lot better.


	4. Chapter 4

"It's not like he contributes anything to the team anyway," Sasuke stared at his drink as Sakura rambled on. "He always just gets in the way; we should talk to Kakashi sensei about getting him transferred." Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"He doesn't get in the way Sakura, he's saved both of us a few times, and he always puts other first, you know that," Sasuke replied, hardly believing he was defending Naruto.

"Oh whatever, he's just an annoying brat," Sakura laughed "We'd all be better off if he never got out of that hospital bed,"

"Come on Sakura, that's not fair," Sasuke said, trying to keep his cool.

"He shouldn't be alive anyway; he's got that gross demon inside him. The Hokage should just lock him in a cage and be done with it," Sakura continued, causing Sasuke to clench his fists.

Sasuke punched Sakura right in the face, sending her flying off of her chair and landing on the floor "Who the heck do you think you are you stupid bitch?" Sasuke yelled at her, "Naruto is a better ninja, a better PERSON than you'll ever be!" Sasuke stormed, leaving Sakura in a sobbing heap.

_Jesus Christ what did I just do?_ Sasuke paced off in no direction in particular, _I'm going to be in the shit now, why the heck did I do that? Why am I defending Naruto anyway?_ Sasuke arrived at a quiet spot in the woods and sat down, trying to calm himself.

"Sasuke?" Naruto stood over the shaking Sasuke, causing Sasuke to almost jump out of his skin. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with Sakura?" Naruto laughed, scratching the back of his head.

"Umm, yeh she went home," Sasuke lied, "What are you doing here?"

"Oh I was feeling much better so I thought I'd go home… there were villagers waiting for me there though," He faked a laugh, as usual, causing Sasuke's heart to pang, as usual.

"H-hey Naruto, if it's too dangerous at your place, you can come stay with me for tonight… if you like?" Sasuke said, losing his usual arrogant demeanour for a moment.

"Thanks Sasuke! It'll be fine though, I'm sure they'll be gone in a couple hours," Naruto grinned.

"Naruto really, I'd like it if you…"

"It's fine!" Naruto replied, patting the other on the shoulder.

The two parted company, and Naruto set off home with his hands behind his head. The villagers were waiting for him. "Hey fox, I thought we told you not to come round here!" Naruto felt a baseball bat crack him in the back of the legs, and he fell to the ground. Naruto tried to get up but was hit again, this time in the back of the head. "Leave him guys, I think he's learnt his lesson."

Meanwhile, Sasuke was lying on his bed trying not to think of what had happened. He wasn't too concerned about the thing with Sakura anymore; he was just riddled with guilt about Naruto. He got up and decided to go apologise – his family honour could wait, he wasn't going to let Naruto go on thinking he wasn't worth being treated like a human being.

When Sasuke arrived at Naruto's district his eyes shot wide "Jesus Christ! Naruto?"

**Wow guys thanks for all the reviews **** please continue reviewing it really makes me happy :D was Sasuke too harsh with Sakura? I think he might have been, but something snapped!**


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